I hit the floor, the previous pain of the brute hitting me made my back pretty painful. The corporal sped walked to me, pulling a bio foam canister from her back satchel. I felt my eyes becoming tough, hard to move around from pain.

"I can't find a wound." She informed, "Lets get you up." She cupped my armpit and helped pulled me to my feet.

I grunted in pain, it felt more internal than external. My ribs were probably pretty bruised. I finally got to my feet, "Thank you," I said with effort. I bent down to pick up my SMG. The pain was really intense. The corporal Straightened me up and picked it up for me.

I pointed to a district wall off in the distance, in big letters it read "coastal highway". "Head in that whereabouts," I ordered. She nodded, dropping her sniper rifle to hang from the sling, she withdrew her pistol, Leading the way. I clipped my sling to the SMG. Let it hang from my neck and followed. The rain in the skies started slowing, the thunder was still prevalent. The storm finally passed, dawn was coming. We walked down the ramped road, where I was smacked off my feet. I kept very close to the Corporal. She made frequent stops, the whine of a nearby phantom would be heard. She would look up into the night sky, trying to spot it. We were fifteen meters from the district door. When we noticed the sound of a motor running.

"Corporal, you hear that?" I asked. She looked behind us, the sound became louder and louder. Then a mongoose was seen driving through the war-torn streets. The driver seemed to be armored. He had a helmet, I couldn't tell from here if he was a Spartan or an ODST. He took a right and headed the way we came from.

"I wonder where he is heading," The corporal said, She turned to me "Jennifer Adliz is my name."

I was still looking in the direction of the mongoose. "Oh," I looked back at her, "I just need to call you Corporal." I stated.

We continued again up on the district door, then she spoke again, "I just thought that you might have wanted to know the name of the last person you'll see if we die."

I walked up and punched in the code to the district, "Yeah, but I'm not going to die. And I'll be damned if I let someone die by the covenant. Just thought I'd let you know that." The door hissed and opened wide open. I stepped into the new district, this place has seen better days. The Covenant was in several intersections, putting blockades over the whole street. I hunkered down and crouched walked to my right, I signaled Jennifer to stay low. I continued my way to a police car, Jennifer followed me and got down next to me.

"Corporal, hand me your rifle," I ordered, "Take this SMG and these rounds. I'll cover you, I can't move as fast as you can right now."

Jennifer nodded in understandment; she crouched walked up to a civilian car. I peeked my head through a melted glass window. The brutes were sniffing the air, they were more easy to see. The sun was breaking the horizon a little bit. I could see more features than a silhouette. They were looking in our direction, the creature spoke something to his small squad of grunts. They quickly dropped a barricade in the street and turned on the plasma shield.

"Corporal, be ready on my mark." I said into comms.

I looked down the scope of the rifle, the high-tech scope gave readings of how far the target was the center cross hair was looking at, and in the sides I could see the temperature and moisture. One that wasn't a sharp-shooter would have no clue; those factors really change a bullet's trajectory. I moved the reticle onto the head of the brute. I slowly squeezed the trigger. My shot was a lucky one, the energy shields that overlaid the creature flashed then flickered. The head exploded, brain fragments shooting out the other side. Jennifer popped up from her position and fired short dispersed rounds into the grunts. The aliens were startled from my rifle shot, running around. In the confusion some just pulled grenades from their belts. A blue flame ignited from the object, then they ran towards Jennifer.

I quickly moved the sights over to the suicidal grunt, I fired the rest of my clip into him. He dropped face first into the floor. The grenades fell from his grip, then discharged. The plasmatic explosion melted a crater into the street, blowing cars into the air. I ducked behind the car, the melted asphalt from the streets was more than shrapnel, it was like flying lava. The streets melted with the heat, making all fragments of asphalt into melted rock. I heard the sizzling of the road hit the other side of my cover.

I popped up, checking to see if the Corporal was ok. She was brushing off some of the asphalt. I walked up to her. "Coastal highway is this way," I informed. I pointed in the only street that wasn't blocked from the plasma barricades. It was a garage door, on the front had several plasma burns. Jennifer walked over to the door and looked for an entrance button. I was close behind, taking a further look of it. I noticed another keypad. I headed towards it and entered my code. The garage door slid open, revealing what was on the other side.

Marines and policeman were busy prepping several war-torn wart hogs. Jennifer walked up to a vehicle and jumped into the passenger seat. I dropped the rifle I had in my hands and walked up to the warthog the corporal was in. I could see in her eyes she saw a bit of hope for getting out. I put my hand on a handle on sat into the backseat of the transport.

"Marines, let's get going." A CO called out. A policeman climbed into the driver side of the warthog and started the engine. The District gate, was the only thing now that separated us from the actual highway itself. A hiss was heard and